Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FIERCE (Feminist Movements Revitalizing Democracy in Europe)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-09-01 bis 2023-11-30
Increasing social inequalities, political disaffection and the rise of radical right groups represent a challenge to our democracy. The EU-funded FIERCE project aims to provide profound theoretical and practical knowledge and tools to understand feminist and anti-feminist/anti-gender movements, activities and discourses as well as their impact on institutions and policies during 2010−2021. The project will use framing, political ethnography and social network analyses to study the related actors in the fields of labour market, health and reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, migration and gender-based violence in eight case studies representing a wide variety of country contexts. Moreover, it will introduce bottom-up initiatives that test solutions and innovations in partnership with feminist NGOs/movements/networks to experiment democratic innovations.
O1: Understanding the structural and contextual conditions at national and transnational level that explain the rise, mobilization patterns and alliance-building by the anti-feminist and anti-gender movements; this in the crisis-ridden decade 2010-2021
O2: Identifying how gender issues and debates are framed, communicated and disseminated by both feminist and anti-gender movements
O3: Mapping the constellation of actors involved in feminist and anti-gender movements, respectively, their relationship and connections with other relevant (external) actors and the policy influence on gender politics at institutional level.
O4: Exploring how feminist movements develop and foster concrete practices aimed at renewing forms of democratic participation and deliberation, and how they build upon intersectional alliances
O5: Study causes and find solutions to the possible tensions among feminist organizations on intersectionality issues, which may prevent the formation of broader political alliances and weaken the political impact of feminism and its ability to counteract anti-gender rhetorics
O6: Facilitating alliances within feminist movements and between feminist movements and different minority movements to contribute elaborating an intersectional approach to democractic innovations, bridging with EU and national policies.
O1: Understanding the structural and contextual conditions at national and transnational level that explain the rise, mobilization patterns and alliance-building by the anti-feminist and anti-gender movements; this in the crisis-ridden decade 2010-2021
O2: Identifying how gender issues and debates are framed, communicated and disseminated by both feminist and anti-gender movements
O3: Mapping the constellation of actors involved in feminist and anti-gender movements, respectively, their relationship and connections with other relevant (external) actors and the policy influence on gender politics at institutional level.
O4: Exploring how feminist movements develop and foster concrete practices aimed at renewing forms of democratic participation and deliberation, and how they build upon intersectional alliances
O5: Study causes and find solutions to the possible tensions among feminist organizations on intersectionality issues, which may prevent the formation of broader political alliances and weaken the political impact of feminism and its ability to counteract anti-gender rhetorics
O6: Facilitating alliances within feminist movements and between feminist movements and different minority movements to contribute elaborating an intersectional approach to democractic innovations, bridging with EU and national policies.
A mapping of the actors, with timelines of most salient gender issues and debates in each country, over the period 2010-21 has been completed.
To to identify how gender issues and debates are framed, communicated, and disseminated by both feminist and anti-gender movements, policy documents, social movement texts, and interviews have been collected/conducted. Campaigns have been identified and selected for analysis. Ongoing progress: 145 interviews (in total) have been conducted with feminist actors as well as anti-gender/antifeminist actors. 54 parliamentary debates and 155 campaigns from feminist actors as well as anti-gender/antifeminist actors are being analysed.
For mapping the constellation of actors involved in feminist and anti-gender movements, respectively, their relationship and connections with other relevant (external) actors and the policy influence on gender politics at institutional level, data on policy discussions through newspaper articles has been collected. The codebook necessary for delineating actors, organisations and policy issues has been prepared. Coding is ongoing and each team already has initial findings on the hottest policy issues that bring the movements together or against one another. At the end of this coding, we will be able to envisage inter and intra-movement organising and the ways in which they ally or confront one another around specific issue areas. 12.924 coded articles so far.
The first cycle of national lab sessions concluded (8 sessions). Total participants to the first national lab co-creation sessions: 123. The first in person transnational lab implemented on September 19th 2023 (Brussels). 26 external participants to the transnational lab (21 from national labs and 5 from European feminist organisations). The first online session of the transnational lab programmed was held on January 9th 2024. 1 policy brief delivered.
To to identify how gender issues and debates are framed, communicated, and disseminated by both feminist and anti-gender movements, policy documents, social movement texts, and interviews have been collected/conducted. Campaigns have been identified and selected for analysis. Ongoing progress: 145 interviews (in total) have been conducted with feminist actors as well as anti-gender/antifeminist actors. 54 parliamentary debates and 155 campaigns from feminist actors as well as anti-gender/antifeminist actors are being analysed.
For mapping the constellation of actors involved in feminist and anti-gender movements, respectively, their relationship and connections with other relevant (external) actors and the policy influence on gender politics at institutional level, data on policy discussions through newspaper articles has been collected. The codebook necessary for delineating actors, organisations and policy issues has been prepared. Coding is ongoing and each team already has initial findings on the hottest policy issues that bring the movements together or against one another. At the end of this coding, we will be able to envisage inter and intra-movement organising and the ways in which they ally or confront one another around specific issue areas. 12.924 coded articles so far.
The first cycle of national lab sessions concluded (8 sessions). Total participants to the first national lab co-creation sessions: 123. The first in person transnational lab implemented on September 19th 2023 (Brussels). 26 external participants to the transnational lab (21 from national labs and 5 from European feminist organisations). The first online session of the transnational lab programmed was held on January 9th 2024. 1 policy brief delivered.
The FIERCE project focuses on expanding knowledge about the strategies and positions of the radical right and anti-gender movements, as well as the feminist movements' responses to the challenges posed by the gender equality+ backlash. Previous research has mostly studied anti-gender and anti-feminism movements as separate from feminist responses, and reactions. This is a knowledge gap that FIERCE has started to bridge. The project's initial reports under WP1 and WP2 already highlighted the complex network of actors on both sides, but also disclosed the lack of more structured knowledge about their specific action repertoires, strategies, organisation, policy demands and achievements, also over time.
FIERCE is addressing this by concurrently exploring these actors and dynamics within the project framework, using tasks based on critical framing analysis, interviews, and discourse network analysis in WP1 and WP2. All these are well underway and covering both sides. This approach has proven very useful and effective in understanding and regularly discussing the interplay of actions and reactions between anti-gender, anti-feminist actors, and feminist movements across the various contexts represented in the project. It also allowed to reveal some of the main controversies not only between, but also amongst the actors under scientific scrutiny.
A key focus of FIERCE is also to encourage and support policy collaboration and dialogue among feminists and institutions at various levels (local, national, transnational). This is being achieved through the creation of the National and Transnational Labs (WP4), designed as platforms for discussing issues, challenges and strategies against the gender equality backlash and more broadly illiberalism (particularly in some of the contexts. These labs have successfully unpacked a range of perspectives and practices within (inter)national feminist movements, pinpointing specific policy, organisational and other requirements. They have also generated diverse, actionable suggestions that are in the process of development, although these would require more economic and human resources and time to be fully implemented and more widely disseminated. However, the methodology and participatory approach so-far employed in the labs has provided a solid foundation for evaluating the effectiveness (and limitations) of such collaborative strategies and engagement, and to establish networks and cooperation with a longer lifetime span than FIERCE.
FIERCE is addressing this by concurrently exploring these actors and dynamics within the project framework, using tasks based on critical framing analysis, interviews, and discourse network analysis in WP1 and WP2. All these are well underway and covering both sides. This approach has proven very useful and effective in understanding and regularly discussing the interplay of actions and reactions between anti-gender, anti-feminist actors, and feminist movements across the various contexts represented in the project. It also allowed to reveal some of the main controversies not only between, but also amongst the actors under scientific scrutiny.
A key focus of FIERCE is also to encourage and support policy collaboration and dialogue among feminists and institutions at various levels (local, national, transnational). This is being achieved through the creation of the National and Transnational Labs (WP4), designed as platforms for discussing issues, challenges and strategies against the gender equality backlash and more broadly illiberalism (particularly in some of the contexts. These labs have successfully unpacked a range of perspectives and practices within (inter)national feminist movements, pinpointing specific policy, organisational and other requirements. They have also generated diverse, actionable suggestions that are in the process of development, although these would require more economic and human resources and time to be fully implemented and more widely disseminated. However, the methodology and participatory approach so-far employed in the labs has provided a solid foundation for evaluating the effectiveness (and limitations) of such collaborative strategies and engagement, and to establish networks and cooperation with a longer lifetime span than FIERCE.